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ill-advised zoological experiment by one of the Charterers. Like the abandoned
herdbeasts, they had flourished, too, and ranged freely through the jungles,
grasslands, and up into the southern foothills.
Humans avoided the felines whenever possible; dragons were thrilled by the
challenge of hunting them.
Zaranth was gliding silently and speedily toward the nearest herdbeasts, which
had obviously been split off from the main herd by the canny felines. The
predators were as apt to injure beasts, rendering them lame enough to attack
later, as to kill outright. Tai had seen the result of such tactics, a wide
pasture dotted with bleating, moaning animals, awaiting the pleasure of the
cubs that the felines hunted for.
There! A tawny spot, one of the fast ones, Zaranth cried.
Tai caught the merest glimpse of the yellowish-brown form, bounding after the
terrified herdbeasts. She grabbed her straps instinctively as Zaranth turned
on a wing tip that just cleared one of the stunted trees that dotted the
grassland. A shape leaped from its shadow, barely missing Zaranth's wing, and
in spectacular leaps, made for the cover of the jungle. To flush a feline was
unusual.
Neither dragon nor rider would have seen it lurking in the shade. Of course,
neither would the herdbeasts who were obviously the in-
tended prey.
Zaranth hissed at so close a swipe; a small flame, residue of the most recent
Fall, escaped, spurting after the beast.
Watch it, love! The hide's worth more unsinged, Tai cried.
Despite being large for a green, Zaranth had lost none of the agility that was
her color's most valuable characteristic. She dove, with a burst of speed that
took the breath out of Tai's mouth. Matching the rhythm of the feline's
bounds, she caught it mid-leap. Tai felt
Zaranth's heavy shoulder muscles convulse, then relax. She had a glimpse over
her shoulder of the limp spotted body stretched out on the plain, its back
broken.
The other one!
Zaranth cried, spinning obliquely to her left and heading back up the plateau
toward the first predator they had seen, who was now closing in on a herdbeast
and unaware that its hunting partner had just been taken down.
The most successful-and safest-tactic was to come up behind a feline as
Zaranth was now doing, keeping their shadow from warning the carnivore of
pursuit. Now, just as the feline swiped its front paws at the herdbeast's
galloping hindquarters, Zaranth's claws made contact and snapped its neck in
one clean jerk.
Not bad hunting, Tai said, well pleased with a bag of two, both prime
specimens and, unless Zaranth had singed the first one, quite
saleable.
Shall we continue?
Monarth says it is all in hand. A big pride, but a half wing is sufficient,
Zaranth said as she circled back with her second kill, depositing it with an
almost disdainful negligence beside the first.
These, and Zaranth's tone was possessive, are mine!
No one will dispute it, but I get the skins.
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And skinning was hard work. Tai's brief elation departed.
I'll help, Zaranth said.
If you promise not to drool all over me or lick while I'm working, Tai replied
with mock severity. In the heat of the day, in an open field, there was no
shelter at all from the pests that would smell blood and come for their share.
However, she told herself, two pelts would be worth the discomfort.
She debated throwing the bodies over Zaranth's neck and taking them up to the
cooler, swarm-free foothills to skin.
Once she was on the ground beside them, she discarded that idea. They were big
brutes. She was strong, but these dead weights would be impossible to shift
onto her dragon. The first one was smaller, of a different mix, with a mottled
hide; the other was a tawny yellow-brown, with striped markings on its legs.
Both were females with engorged dugs, and Tai sighed at the thought of yet
more of these monsters maturing to savage herds.
She removed her jacket and hung it on a low bush, taking a well-honed knife
from her boot.
"Lift the first one up, please!" she said, "and remember, you get the carcass
faster if you hold still-and don't salivate all over me."
I know, I know, but Zaranth's mouth was very wet as she lifted the feline by
the head so Tai could make the first incision at the base of the thick throat.
One zip down, slit the legs. Zaranth did drool as she helped. Tai quickly
worked up a sweat. To distract herself, she pondered once again about meeting
F'lessan and his interest in astronomy. Was he going to make that his career
After? Maybe she'd meet him again. Then she reproved herself. He was a Benden
Wingleader, son of Lessa and F'lar, and despite the fact that he had quite [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]